Utilizing SEO-friendly images on your WordPress website is an integral part of optimizing your website for search engines. Images can help to engage users, break up the text, and draw attention to important points. However, images can also slow page load speed and reduce the overall user experience. Fortunately, there are a few simple steps to ensure that your images are optimized for WordPress SEO. This guide will take you through what you need to know to ensure that your images are contributing to your website’s search engine rankings. By following these steps, you’ll be able to create optimized images for SEO, improving the overall performance of your website.
What is Image Optimization?
Image optimization is the process of optimizing your images for search engine results. To rank for specific keywords, your images must be optimized. This is part of “SEO 101” during a WordPress SEO services campaign. This means that you’ll need to reduce the image file size to improve your load times, create relevant alt text, and find an appropriate image size. Without optimizing your images, you might see a decrease in your overall search engine traffic. Image optimization is essential for both new and old images on your site. Any new images you add to your website should be optimized before you add them. Though it’s helpful for SEO, image optimization also has accessibility benefits for those who use screen readers. If your site has underwhelming images, your visitors won’t click on them. That’s why it’s essential to make your images count. Optimizing your images can draw attention to your most important content and encourage more people to click.
Benefits of Optimizing Images for WordPress SEO
- Improved page speed – By compressing your images and optimizing them with appropriate alt text, you’ll be able to reduce page load speed while improving the user experience. This will allow your page to load faster and reduce the server load. This means that your site is more likely to be seen by search engines and will also be more appealing to readers.
- Improved click-through rates – When visitors are on your website, the images are one of the first things they’ll see. Visitors will likely click away if those images don’t make an impression. Optimized images can draw attention to your most important points and encourage more clicks.
- Better SEO – Images are an essential part of any SEO strategy. They can break up text and draw attention to important points, which can help you to rank higher in SERPs. Without optimized images, you might see a drop in your rankings.
How to Optimize Images for WordPress SEO
There are a few key steps that you’ll need to follow to optimize your images for WordPress SEO. You’ll want to start by choosing the correct image format and then compressing the image. Next, you’ll want to add alt text and choose an appropriate image size. Finally, you’ll want to optimize the image for the web with a few simple tweaks. Let’s go through each of these steps in more detail.
a. Choosing the Right Image Format
This is the first step in optimizing your images for WordPress SEO. The first thing that you’ll need to do is to choose the correct image format. Generally, JPEG files are best for photographs, and PNG files are best for images with a lot of text.
- JPEG – JPEG is an appropriate format for images with lots of color and details. This is because JPEG can compress the color and details more than a PNG file. JPEG is also the best image format for photographs, so it’s an excellent choice for high-quality images.
- PNG – PNG files are great for images that have lots of text. They can render bold colors and work well in both black and white. If you have an image that only has a few colors and lots of text, you might want to choose the JPEG format.
- WebP – WebP is a compressed image optimized for the web and considered a next-gen image. Browsers only render them for the most part. WebP images score significant points with Google currently.
b. Compressing Images
The next step in optimizing your images for WordPress SEO is to compress them. This can be done with essential software, such as Photoshop. You’ll want to compress the images to a size appropriate for the web. Generally, you want to keep the file size under 1MB. If you’re unsure how large the file size is, a quick Google search will let you know. The next step is to reduce the file type to either JPEG or PNG, depending on the image. Generally, JPEG is best for photographs, and PNG is better for images with lots of text.
c. Adding Image Alt Text
Next, you’ll want to add alt text to your images. This text will appear if the image can’t be displayed (such as if the image is broken or the user is browsing in a text-only mode). Search engine bots can also read it, so it’s essential to add relevant alt text to each image that you add to your website. The best way to do this is to create a long-tail keyword phrase that describes the image. The keyword phrase should be between 50 and 100 characters long and include the brand name. For example, let’s say that you want to add an image of your team to your website. You want the image to show your team members’ faces and be engaging. You can create an image related to your blog’s content and add the keyword phrase “meet the team” as the alt text. This will help to boost the SEO for the image and give it more context.
d. Choosing an Appropriate Image Size
Now that you’ve optimized the image for SEO, you’ll need to choose an appropriate image size. Generally, you want to keep the image size between 1 MB and 2 MB. If your image is more significant than 2 MB, you can try to reduce the size or find a different image. If you need to resize the image, use image editing software to crop the image. Avoid using the “resize” or “shrink” options available on most websites because they often result in pixelation. If you’re using WordPress, you can use the image editing tools in your post editor to resize images.
Tips to Improve Image SEO
– Source – The first thing you’ll want to do when optimizing your images for WordPress SEO is to ensure that you’re sourcing the images from a reputable website. This means that the images are likely published under a Creative Commons license and are free for public use. – Size – The next thing you’ll want to keep in mind is the size of the image. Generally, the best image size is between 800 and 1000 pixels. This will allow the image to fit on the screen without making it too difficult to click. – Alt text – You also want to ensure that the alt text is relevant to the image. This will help improve the image’s SEO and make it more likely to be clicked on.
Conclusion
Images are an essential part of any SEO strategy and can help to improve your overall search engine ranking. To do this, you’ll want to start by choosing the correct image format. Once done, you’ll want to compress the image and add relevant alt text. Finally, you’ll want to resize the image to a size appropriate for the web. With these steps in mind, you’ll be able to optimize your images for WordPress SEO and improve their overall performance.